116 
Psyche 
[Sept.-Dee. 
Book Review 
The Carnivorous Plants, by Francis E. Lloyd, xv + 352 pp., 
39 plates. Waltham, Massachusetts, The Chronica Botanica 
Co.; New York, G. E. Stechert & Co. $6.00. 
Although this is primarily a botanical treatise, it deals with 
a series of peculiarly modified plants that are of great interest 
to zoologists and especially to entomologists. Most generally 
known as insectivorous plants, they have long excited much 
speculation in the minds of many observers and aroused the 
interest of numerous professional biologists. Most noteworthy 
of the previous accounts is, of course, Charles Darwin’s “In- 
sectivorous Plants” published in 1875. This treatment reveals 
the great selectionist as an experimental biologist, a role usually 
overlooked and overshadowed by his contributions in other 
fields. 
Lloyd’s book gives a very complete account of all of this 
literature from the earliest accounts by travelers, botanists and 
many others before Darwin, as well as the subsequent period 
during which numerous students have added much information, 
notably the German botanist Goebel. Formerly a student of 
Goebel, Lloyd himself has contributed a number of papers, 
particularly on Utricularia. The historical account includes 
many controversial matters relating to the anatomy and physi- 
ology of the plants, some of which have not even yet been fully 
clarified. The text is restricted to plants which actually catch 
or trap living animals (usually insects) and omits the numerous 
parasitic fungi and bacteria on the basis that they are not car- 
nivorous in the sense of being really predatory. The several 
plants are dealt with in the order of increasing complexity in 
the structure of trapping devices, each genus or type forming 
a separate chapter. 
Of the flowering plants, members of six families, numbering 
450 species in fifteen genera are referred to. Their distribution 
is remarkable, two genera are nearly cosmopolitan (Drosera, 
Utricularia) ; several are very widespread (Aldrovandra, Ne- 
penthes, Pinguicula), while at least seven are confined to re- 
stricted or very small areas, culminating in Dionaea whose range 
